This week was one of the most intense, action packed trips I’ve had in a long time.  I spent the week on a road trip with my friend Link and we did many things that one probably shouldn’t do if they value survival.  See some of the photos and videos below.  There is a caption for each!

Some scattered occurrences/moments of awesome:

• Staying with a CS host in Tinley Park who shares his very first host with me.
• Meeting up with Dan and Lara (drove down from Milwaukee to meet us for dinner).
• The City Museum!  Awesome place with amazing things of adventure.
• The only decent injury of the trip being from a giant hamster wheel.
• Sleeping in a giant warehouse in St. Louis.
• Meeting Link’s family friends near Nashville.
• Being completely in awe of the fitness level of our host in Nashville.
• Being towed behind a plane in a hang glider and releasing the tether at 4000’.  Flight at the Lookout Mountain Flight Park.
• Flying through clouds and seeing the glory ring.
• Pink bandana (to be mentioned later).
• Caving at Raccoon Mountain with my mom.
• Seeing my parents who came up from Atlanta and the awesome Waffle House dinner after.
• The amazing and incredible host in Chattanooga who showed us the area and have amazing dogs…though one of them will pee on you if you pet him.
• Exploding pickles.
• Making one pink bandana very holy.
• Wiggle wiggle.
• Amish market.
• Climbing high in the Smoky Mountains at the Chimney Top trail.
• Falling from even higher with Skydive East Tennessee.
• The wind…the incredible wind…
• 10 for 10.
• Fire performance for 20% off of our bill at a pizza place.
• “It’s been found and is being used”.
• Seth Glier at the The Ark.
• Holi on the Diag
• Laundry…mostly done…

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Now, to photos and videos…

This first photo is Link getting stuck at the City Museum Challenge. The goal is to climb through the tree trunk about five or six feet.  People get stuck in it for a long time.

The video is also the Challenge.  This was NOT my first attempt…

Hang gliding.  I believe this is roughly 2000’ right now.

A long, uncut video of the full hang gliding experience.  Look for the circular rainbow surrounding our shadow as we pass over clouds.

Two photos from the firing range.  The first one, you can see the casing pouring out smoke as it exits the chamber.  You can also see sparks exiting the barrel.  We were trying to get the bullet, but never managed to do it…I suppose that’s why they use timers and other high-tech things like that.

This second photo is a pickle.

And, just for fun…

At the peak of the Chimney Top trail in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Came down and decided to see how fast I could get back to the top.  You can turn off the sound if you’d like…mostly what you’ll hear is me getting further out of breath.

This video was purchased from the skydive folks.  They did polish it up and put it to music…but I really wanted to share the raw film in order to give a sense of the incredible wind.  I did not shoot this video.

Now, the important part…if anybody would like to go on a road trip, let me know!  I’m game.

No better way than to just start posting some pictures…I suppose this is a sign that I want to wander again that I’ve managed to go through these.  Future trips, thoughts?  Right now, a few look good:

1) An epic tour encompassing any of the following - Southern Africa, up the coast through the Middle East into Asia, arcing through the islands, dropping down to New Zealand/Australia and freighting over to Patagonia and going north…so yea…a touch ambitious.

2) Crossing North America on a cycle - through Canada possibly, the dropping south for a trip back.

3) Going south to Patagonia…

Anyways, right now, I’m in Ann Arbor busily corrupting more kids with science and dreaming of adventures while trying to figure out an actual “future”.

Some photos, starting at the end of the year. 

Barcelona, Spain: 12/29/10 - Passing briefly through town on the way back home.  One of the last images of the entire tour.

Northern shore of Mallorca, Spain: 12/26/10 - I have hundreds of photos of this little area…no clue exactly which one(s) is(are) worth keeping…

Valencia, Spain: 12/19/10 - These next two are in/around the science museum.  Stunningly gorgeous architecture.

Barcelona, Spain: 12/18/10 - I find it wonderful that on December 18, I was in shorts, walking in water at the beach…

Barcelona, Spain: 12/17/10 - A few from the Sagrada Familia.

All for now…but at least it’s begun.  Eventually (as you already know, that word can really mean a while…), I’ll make it through. By the time I do, I’d better out making more things to eventually share.

The circle.  Started in Dublin at Jim’s.  Ended in Dublin at Jim’s.  Started at Grogan’s.  Ended at Grogan’s.  Flight home is at 1:00 (or, 8:00 AA time).  I’ll be home by 9:00pm and headed to a New Year’s party.  Of course, this all depends on airports not being covered in snow.

This non-post.  I’m about to be headed to the bus stop.  Then I’ll be stuck in a metal thing for many hours.  Reflections on the theme later.  Now, breakfast.

I like this island.  I spent Christmas Eve and Day in a fairly lazy manner, quite welcome respite from the higher energy of the previous weeks.  Managed to call quite a few folks.  It was really nice to hear voices of family and friends…those of you who answered your phones.

Day after Christmas, I wandered alone near Palma.  The first few photos are from just north of Palma on Dec. 26.  Dec. 27, Miguel and I went in the car along the mountains.  The other photos are from various stops through the mountains on the northwest coast of Mallorca.  I think I am completely in love with those mountains.  I will have to come back.

I made it back to Barcelona.  My plan today was to spend as long as it takes to find a box for my cycle and then hang out with people from the hostel.  The box-finding took way less time than expected.  I managed to find one at the absolutely first place I stopped and went around the city again.  Now, I’m sitting back at the hostel, about to head out to some place I’ve never been to meet up with some CSers.  Tomorrow…travel begins to point further homeward.

Right…photos.  Short text today.  Happy New Year (or, remainder of year, that is).  I’ll be in the States soon and then I have to pretend to be a real adult again…or at least a responsible one.

I started on an island, I’ll end on an island.  There’s something about being surrounded by water that makes you feel peace.  I like islands.

Valencia.  Time there was fantastic.  My birthday was quite relaxed.  I intended to go out, but ended up meeting some really cool folks at the hostel for the night.  The four of us (American, German, Russian and Finnish) stayed up late simply doing very little other than chatting.  Next morning, I checked out of the hostel, but left my bags so I could wander the city for a while before my ferry.

Came back to the hostel to shower before heading out and ended up staying there for quite a while longer than anticipated…something about being around cool people and being repeatedly hit with a pillow makes you delay.  Finally, headed down to the port with a friend from the hostel to catch the ferry.  We hung out by the beach for a little while then I wandered off.  The irony of it all, I’ve started to relax quite a bit more than normal and go with the flow.  I booked a ferry earlier that afternoon and by night, was wishing I hadn’t.  Ah well…such is life, yes?

(sorry, no photos of the third hostel person!)

Ferry was calm, but not quite the most relaxing.  It was 7-8 hours, starting at 11:30pm, arriving somewhere around 7:00am.  That doesn’t make for good sleep.  Arrived in Palma De Mallorca in the dark.

December 22, I watched both the sunrise and the sunset without once setting foot inside.  I spent the entire of the day cycling along the coast, waves lapping at my tires.  Met up with my CS host in Palma and headed back to his place in Manacor around 7:30pm.  By this point, I was exhausted, but we went out for a wonderful, traditional Mallorcan dinner.

Yesterday was spent again cycling.  It feels good to be back on the road a bit.  The route took me up to the other side of the island for some more coastal scenery, then back through the hills through small, Spanish towns.  Day  ended with a CS meetup in Palma where I tried a drink made locally…some sort of alcohol with sweet herbs…love the details, yea?

It feels good to rest.  After close to three months of non-stop motion, I think a week doing little will be nice to close out the year.  It has, indeed, been a year.

Merry Christmas all!  I hope you are all well and I will see you in the New Year.  Family and friends, I’ll miss you tonight.

I went to Pisa because one always has to go to Pisa.  What is in Pisa?  A tower.  It occurred to me that the leaning part is not so special if you look at it from a different angle.

Then, I began to look around a bit.  If you stand in the plaza around the tower, you’ll notice tons of tourists doing the oddest thing.  Well, actually, it’s pretty clear what they’re doing.  They’re doing the pose with them “holding up” the leaning tower.  Looking from another direction, everybody just looks incredibly silly.

This was actually framed to be one of those cliche photos…then I asked the photographer to move and get the tower out of the frame.  He was confused, but agreed.  One more photo that changes based on the perspective:

Pisa is a pretty city, but there’s not a whole ton there, outside of the little plaza.  It gave a few cool views, but that’s really it.  No worries. 

I then made my way to Livorno (of which, I saw about none) for a ferry to Barcelona.  The ferry originally was supposed to leave around 11:00pm and I was due to be at the port 2 hours before departure.  Well, for some reason, I had the “depart” and “arrive” time messed up in my head.  Instead of 11, I thought 8:00pm.  Likewise, the port was not easy to find, so I wanted to get there early enough to make it with light.  So…I was there around 4:30.  At 7:30, they inform me that the ferry is delayed…by 5 hours.

The ferry was not a tremendously interesting one…plus, I didn’t really even have a seat.  I, along with the other TWO passengers on the boat curled up on the sofas in the common bar area where the TV was always on, along with the lights.  Thanks to having lots of video stuff on the external hard drive, I was kept entertained by Babylon 5.

Right.  I made it to Barcelona at 3:00am without a phone number or address of the hostel.  Found a computer with internet in the welcome building and managed to contact the hostel…which was only a few blocks away.

Barcelona is one of those cities that I could actually go for.  You have the I Pyrenees very close by.  A large portion of the city is beachfront and there’s a lot of really cool architecture.  I spent my evenings in a fantastic hostel and my days wandering.  By the end of each day, I found myself wandering along the beach…shoes kicked off.  It’s interesting that on the same roll of “film” (memory card), I have photos of the Alps and the ocean.  I love it.  I think I’ll keep Barcelona.  That weekend, a world race sailing competition was beginning in Barcelona.  One night, while tired and somewhat homesick, I heard a noise that sounded like a tornado siren morphing into music.   The sound was, as best as I can tell, produced by the horns of several ships playing harmonies.  It recalled whales and wind.  It was both empty and full of emotion.  I cannot describe it.  I recorded a video which I’ll post when back in the States.  The sound was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard.  Perhaps it was the music, perhaps it was my state of mind…but the music practically brought tears to my eyes.

Had a break from hostels and stayed with a really nice Polish girl in Valencia last night.  Spent the first afternoon/evening doing a huge loop, starting with the modern-architecture area, then working my way around through the historic center.  Today, I spent a bit of time at the beach, where it was quite warm (but not quite warm enough to swim).  I ended up walking way further than I originally thought.  Tonight, I’m at a hostel here…a hostel named “Home”.  I’m aware that this is a marketing ploy, but I think it’s a comforting thought to imagine myself at home on my birthday.

Tomorrow night, radically changed plans are now taking me to one of the Balearic Islands.  I’ll spend two nights on the far side with couchsurfers.  I’ve booked a decent hotel room for Dec. 24 and 25, with internet.  I’ll likely spend a bit of time talking with family and friends.  Two more nights, I’ll couchsurf. 

Finally, on Dec. 28, I take a ferry back to Barcelona for another night or two.  Flight back to Dublin for a night…then back to the “real” world.  I suppose it’s just a matter of perspective.

Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes.  They mean a lot to me.  They give me a sense of home and what that actually means.  Perhaps that’s one lesson I’m beginning to learn.  The value of home.

So, it occurred to me a while ago that I would far from home on both my birthday (Dec. 20) and Christmas.  I would love to spend the time with really cool people like family, but they’re in Atlanta.  Does anybody have a family I could adopt near Valencia, Spain for Christmas?  I promise to be good.